Once he became president, Trujillo took some of his most loyal men and created a small military force called the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar, or SIM. Their job was to control public opinion and eliminate opposition, no matter how great. One of the most important tasks that SIM was charged with accomplishing was the Parsley Massacre of 1937. A year after a political compromise between the two nations, thousands of Haitians were illegally immigrated to the Dominican Republic. Many Dominicans complained about the exponential growth of settlements on the border because it hampered trade. Trujillo responded: “We have already started to remedy the situation. Three hundred Haitians are now dead in [the town of] Bánica. This remedy will continue. Trujillo had ordered his men to get rid of the Haitians occupying the border areas. Around 20,000 Haitians and some black Dominicans were killed. If you couldn't pronounce "perejil" or persil by rolling the "r", it implied that you spoke French and as a Haitian you were killed. Women and children were killed as mercilessly as the men with bayonets, machetes and rifles. Dominicans who tried to help were also killed. The bodies were thrown into a body of water that flows between the two countries, as if to send a message. The SIM was so effective that a horrific genocide occurred for just five days. It is an event that tarnished the Haitian-Dominican relationship